[featured_image]Welcome to Day 25 as you Take the Missional Challenge!

Take the Missional Challenge is a 31 Day experience designed to help align believers with Jesus’ mission. Each day’s post includes missional concepts and activities. For more information – click here.

Americans are consumers. And many Christians in America approach their relationship with Christ and His Church as consumers. They approach God for what He can do for them, rather than out of worship for who He is and with a heart to serve Him and engage in His mission.

Skye Jethani further explains the problem within a consumer culture:

In a commodity culture we have been conditioned to believe nothing carries intrinsic value. Instead, value is found only in a thing’s usefulness to us, and tragically this belief has been applied to people as well. … The reduction of even sacred things into commodities also explains why we exhibit so little reverence for God. In a consumer worldview he has no intrinsic value apart from his usefulness to us. He is a tool we employ, a force we control, and a resource we plunder. We ascribe value to him (the literal meaning of the word “worship”) based not on who he is, but on what he can do for us. (The Divine Commodity)

Consumerism is a major obstacle to missional activity.

I’ve come to believe that in dealing with consumerism we are dealing with an exceedingly powerful enemy propagated by a very sophisticated media machine. This is our situation, but it is also our own personal condition – and it must be dealt with if we are going to be effective in the twenty-first century in the West. (Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways)

How will you keep yourself from approaching God and the Church as a consumer? I love what Pastor David Hegg from Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita affirmed to me recently, “At Grace Baptist, we refuse to be the end-users of God’s blessings.” They aren’t going to come to God or the Church to get God’s blessings for themselves – they are committed to being a conduit of blessings. That’s an effective way to confront consumerism!

DAY 25 ACTION STEP: Abandon a Consumer Mindset

“If our encounter with God does not require something of us, we have to ask whether it was really God we encountered.” (Alan & Debra Hirsch, Untamed)

1. Read posts on Consumerism: Part 1 and Part 2.

2. Consider:

  • How have you acted like a consumer in your approach to God and His Church?
  • How will you abandon me-centered Christianity and embrace a missional lifestyle?

3. Commit yourself to obey anything the Spirit is leading you to do!

Day 25 Missional Challenge: Don’t follow Jesus for any material benefit you think you’ll gain. Follow Jesus out of radical obedience no matter what the cost. (Luke 9:23)

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”